Wire-tightener.



PATENTED SEPT. 13, 1904.

J. RILEY.

WIRE TIGHTENER.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 16, 1903.

N0 MODEL.

eAlfox-geys Patented September 13, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES RILEY, OF ELMA, TOTYA.

WIRE-TIGHTENER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 769,714, dated September 13, 1904.

Application filed September 16, 1903. Serial No. 173,444. (No model.)

To all wit/mt it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JAMES RILEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Elma, in the county of Howard and State of Iowa, have invented a new and useful Wire-Tightener, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to devices employed for straining or tightening wires, especially wires employed in fence construction, either in building new fences or in repairing breaks in old fences, and has for its object to simplify and improve devices of this character and produce a device which may be cheaply constructed, readily applied, and by which the wire may be held in its strained position for an indefinite time.

The invention consists in certain novel features of construction, as hereinafter shown and described, and specified in the claim.

In the drawings illustrative of the invention, in which corresponding parts are denoted by like designating characters, Figure 1 is a plan view. Fig. 2 is a side view of the device applied. Fig. 3 is a detail view illustrating one manner of applying the device.

The improved device consists of a disk 10, of sheet metal, of sufficient strength to resist the strains to which it will be subjected and across one of the faces of which a lever-arm 11 is secured extending radially therefrom, as shown. The disk and its attached lever-arm are provided with a U-shaped shackle 12, connected at the terminals of its legs centrally thereto by pivot-pin 13, as shown, the memher-12 being provided with a coupling means 14 for attachment to one portion, 15, of a strandwire or other stationary support, as by a chain 16, as shown in Fig. 3, as hereinafter described.

The wire to be strained is represented at 17 and to this wire a section of chain 18 will be detachably coupled, as by a clamp 19.

Connected to the disk at opposite sides of its central pivot 13 and also upon the op posite faces of the disk are draw-rods 2O 21, terminating in hooks 22 23, movably connected to the free ends thereof, for detachably engaging the chain 18. By this arrangement it will be obvious that when the lever-arm 11 is moved in one direction the pivot-pin 13 will act as a fulcrum to cause the rod 20 and its hook 22 to draw the chain 18 and its connected wire 17 toward the disk and lever-arm, the same movement loosening the rod 21 and moving the hook 23 over the chain in position to engage it at the end of the stroke. Then at the reverse movement of the lever-arm and disk the rod 21 and its hook 23 will draw the chain 18 and wire 17 toward the support and move the rod and hook 22 along the chain to a new grip-point, and so on as long as required.

Extending between the free end of the leverarm 11 and the chain 18 and engaging the chain between the hooks 22 23 and the wire coupling 19 is a rod 24, pivotally connected at 25 to the lever-arm and provided with a hook 26 at the other end for detachable connection with the chain. By this simple means the lever may be coupled to the chain and the wire held for any length of time required at the tension obtained.

It will be noted that the rods 20 21 are disposed at opposite sides of the faces of the disk 10, which extending from the lever-arm in the longitudinal direction of the rods maintains them in separated position and effectually prevents any entanglement or interference of the rods and is therefore an important feature of the invention and adds materially to the value and efliciency of the device.

The clamp members 14 and 19 may be clamped to the ends of a broken strand-wire and the two ends then strained until their ends are overlapped to a suflicient extent to be connected or a coupling-wire connected to the broken ends in the ordinary manner, or a chain 16 may be connected by one end to the shackle 12 and connected by the other end to a post or other stationary support and the wire 17 then strained as desired. To this end a loose link 27 is connected to the shackle 12 to provide for the ready attachment of the chain 16. The chain 16 and clamp 14 may thus be alternately used as required or as circumstances or the condition of the work or the relative positions of the parts to be strained shall determine.

The whole device is simple in construction,

their terminals provided with sWiveled hooks, and a bar connected With the lever and having a hooked terminal disposed in advance of those on the said arms.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two Witnesses.

JAMES RILEY.

Witnesses:

J. J. MOFAUL, CHAS. TIERNEY. 

